Hamas to return bodies of 4 dead Israeli hostages in exchange for prisoners

The deadlock had threatened to collapse the ceasefire when the current six-week first phase of the deal expires this weekend

Hamas will return the bodies of four Israeli hostages on Thursday in exchange for Israel's release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, the group said, just days before the first phase of the ceasefire between the warring parties was to expire.

 

Israel has delayed the release of about 600 Palestinian prisoners since Saturday to protest what it says is the cruel treatment of hostages during their release by Hamas.

 

The militant group has said that the delay is a serious violation of their ceasefire and that talks on a second phase aren't possible until the Palestinians are freed.

 

Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Hamas would hand over the bodies of four Israelis the next day.

 

Here's the latest:

 

Israeli authorities charge released Palestinian prisoner with traffic violation

 

JERUSALEM - Israeli authorities have filed charges against a Palestinian for riding in a car without a seat belt while celebrating his release from prison under the ceasefire with Hamas.

 

Israeli police said Wednesday that Ashraf Zaghir, 46, and two of his family members stood inside a moving vehicle with their upper bodies outside the car, without seat belts, recklessly endangering themselves and others in violation of traffic laws.

 

Israel has tried to stamp out public expressions of joy over the release of prisoners. Hundreds of Palestinians have been released in recent weeks in exchange for the release of hostages abducted by Hamas in its October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

 

Zaghir was convicted of transporting a suicide bomber in a 2002 attack that killed six people and wounded dozens. It was not clear if Zaghir was in Israeli detention on Wednesday. Officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 

Medics in Gaza report 7th infant death from hypothermia

 

GAZA STRIP - Palestinian medics say an infant has died from hypothermia in the Gaza Strip, the seventh such death in the last two weeks.

 

Dr Munir al-Boursh, director general of Gaza's Health Ministry, said that Seela Abdel Qader, who was less than two months old, died Wednesday due to the latest severe cold wave that has hit the Palestinian enclave.

 

Zaher al-Wahedi, head of the ministry's records department, said the child died in Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

 

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are living in crowded tent camps or buildings damaged in the 15-month war between Israel and Hamas, which has been paused by a fragile ceasefire.

 

The head of the Arab League condemns Israeli airstrikes in Syria

 

DUBAI - Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit condemned Israeli airstrikes and ground incursions in Syria as a a reckless provocation and an escalation that seizes the opportunity of political transition in Syria to establish an illegal and illegitimate reality.

 

He called for the international community to take clear positions to condemn this unjustified aggression that aims to ignite tension in the region and put obstacles in the way of political transition in Syria.

 

Since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad, Israel has regularly launched airstrike on military sites in Syria and Israeli forces moved into territory in southern Syria adjacent to the Israel-annexed Golan Heights and have made clear they plan to stay indefinitely, citing security concerns.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel won't allow Syria's new army to enter the area south of Damascus.

 

There has been no official response from the Syrian interim government, led by members of the former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, to Netanyahu's comments, but Syrian officials have called for Israel to withdraw from the territory it has seized since Assad's fall.

 

Israelis line highways as bodies of mother and her children are sent for burial

 

TEL AVIV Tens of thousands of Israelis, some holding flags and signs that read Forgive us, lined the highways as the bodies of an Israeli mother and her two children who were killed in Gaza were transported to their burial.

 

Shiri Bibas was kidnapped with her two sons Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months old from their home on Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023. Hamas released their bodies last week as part of a fragile ceasefire deal, though initially the militant group did not release the correct body for Shiri Bibas.

 

The three will be buried on Kibbutz Nir Oz on Wednesday afternoon.

 

Hamas says the three were killed in an Israeli airstrike in November 2023. Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari denies this and said Ariel and Kfir Bibas were killed by their captors.

 

Yarden Bibas, their father, was taken separately, and released during the ceasefire last month.